Since the power had gone out, things had only gotten weirder. Karan wasn't even sure how to explain it. The things she saw were...unnatural. Creatures wandered the streets below, checking doors, breaking things in their path. At first she'd thought that she'd been hallucinating, perhaps something had gotten into the water supply, but then Lili had commented on such such beast from the window, and Karan had known it was all real. At that point the window drapes had been closed, and they were never reopened. In the same way the doors were locked, and never opened. Karan wasn't just afraid of the monsters below, but of the people inside. Most people didn't have more than a week's worth of food in the house, and the moment they started getting low, well, she knew they would start looking for it elsewhere. Elsewhere might very well start with her. She wouldn't allow it.

As long as the water kept going, and the gas kept flowing, she could keep things somewhat normal. She had enough ingredients to make bread for months, even if it would be a meager diet. Karan was hoping it wouldn't last that long, especially for Renka's sake. Renka didn't have months before her baby would want out of her womb. She might have once given birth to a child, but that had been a long time ago, and even if it hadn't, she knew nothing about helping another woman do it. Baking and cooking were all she'd ever really been good at.

Sleeping at night was hard now. The urge to toss and turn was almost overwhelming, but she kept herself still for the others she now shared her bed with. Lili slept easily, and it seemed to Karan that despite the restrictions and lack of power, the girl remained relatively untouched by the disaster, beyond the worry she had for her father. Renka slept deeply as well, but it was more the sleep of the exhausted than anything. Karan tried to make things easier on her, but the worries she had about...everything wore her down. Such worries were also eating at her, though she tried to stay strong for the other woman. They may have had bread and water for months...but how much longer could they really remain like this?

She didn't even know what time it was now, and still these worried gnawed at her spirit. Beside her, Lili shifted in her sleep, and behind her something made a sound. "Cheep!"

Karan almost fell off the bed in shock, but then reoriented herself, made sure the other two were still asleep, and turned to face the direction of the sound. Naturally, she could see nothing, and so she fumbled around for the Tesla flashlight she'd so wisely bought years and years ago, just for situations like this...if not as dire as the current one. The click it made as it turned on was soft, and it illuminated the gray nezumi that sat on her bedside table. "It's you," she murmured in disbelief. She had not expected to ever see the nezumi again, believing that her thoughts had been wild and crazy, but not having been able to resist them all the same.

The rodent made a few sniffing noises at her and then jumped off the table, scurrying toward the bedroom door. It wanted her to follow, and Karan obeyed, slowly, quietly, making sure that her absence would not be noticed by either of the bed's other occupants. By the time she'd left the bedroom, the nezumi had managed to climb all the way up onto the dining room table. It sniffed at her again, and she slumped down into a chair, grabbing a roll from underneath her cake cloche and offering it to the creature. It still wore her blue ribbon, complete with a little note, but it didn't look like her bow, it looked like it had been retied.

While the gray nezumi nibbled away happily at her roll Karan cautiously untied the ribbon and removed the small piece of paper it held. On one side was her original note to Nezumi, the boy her son had brought in out of the storm all those years ago. Her son had never told her much about that night, including the boy's name, but now and then her son would see something and mumble the word; Nezumi. She didn't need eyes to know that the homeless boy had stolen her son's heart that night, and she stubbornly thought that perhaps, if they had reunited in this tragedy, it would be the one good thing to have happened.

She reread her note, knowing how desperate it sounded, and then, half curiously, and half hopefully, she turned the paper over. For a second, she felt like her heart stopped. It was not a return note from the mysterious boy, but an actual note from her son. It was short, yet it said so much more than the actual words.

'Mom, I love you. Stay safe. Shion.'

Seven words. The note was only seven words, but it said a thousand. First and foremost, her son was alive. The gray nezumi did actually have a connection to the Nezumi, and the Nezumi to her son. All of those were things that Karan counted as good, but the note said more than that. Stay safe. Hold on, just a little bit longer, something's going to happen, something will give. Two words conveyed all that, but it also gave her the feeling in her gut that though she was being told to stay put, to hold on, Shion was about to do something.

She held the note against her heart, and prayed for her son to do just as he had bidden her to do; Stay safe.

"So we don't have to go in there at all?"

"Not at all." Nezumi fiddled with the edges of his gloves, making sure they were set snugly on his hands. "I think playing the role of distraction is perfect for a couple of background characters like you two." Satisfied that the gloves were still fitting properly, he looked up at Inukashi and Rikiga's faces. They were about what he'd expected, Rikiga looking properly insulted at being called a background character, and Inukashi looking at him with something between suspicion and open hostility.

"And you said that it had to be ready tomorrow at noon?" Inukashi had even set his hands on his hips to show his hostility. It was almost cute, how the child liked to pretend to be the alpha of the pack. Perhaps he was, when he was alone with his mutts, but here...not so much.

Nezumi nodded. "Tomorrow at noon will be perfect." Not that Nezumi really thought they would even need that long to figure out that to provide a good distraction, all they really needed to do was summon a couple of high level demons and tell them to cause havoc in the building's lobby. They may have created the app, but Nezumi highly doubted that many, if any of them at all, were capable of higher summoning. After all, they'd mostly been tucked safely away inside the tower for the entirety of the disaster. It would take them a while to deal with a demon at level 40 or higher. Of course, he couldn't just tell them that. They'd figure it out. He had faith that even they were at least that smart.

"And you will be careful?" Nezumi almost laughed at Rikiga's question. The man didn't care about him, no. He'd stopped caring the moment he'd discovered that the beauty of his voice didn't match up with the off color of his personality. On the other hand, Shion unknowingly had the man wrapped around his little finger. It was partially that Shion remained polite, despite everything that had happened, but Nezumi wasn't so oblivious as to think it wasn't also partially the boy's mother. Rikiga would hardly have a chance at possibly meeting and wooing the woman if her son died 'on his watch.'

"Don't you worry, old man. We'll be as careful as a nezumi in a room full of cats."

"Promise?"

Nezumi looked over at Shion who was smiling softly and nodding. "Promise," he agreed for both of them with a smirk.

The shorter boy dug into his pocket and pulled out the phone he'd been using for nearly a week now. Gently, he offered it to Inukashi. "Would you hold onto this for me? Nezumi said it's a bad idea to take it where we're going."

"Yeah, sure." The child shrugged nonchalantly, but took it from him in a manner that was just as gentle as the manner it had been offered. "But I'm not holding onto it forever, so you'd better come back for it."

Shion's smile became a grin. "Of course."

At this point they parted ways. Inukashi and Rikiga to figure out what they were going to prepare for Fennec Corp at noon tomorrow, and Nezumi and Shion in the opposite direction. "So where are we going?" As was normal, the boy was simply following him wherever he went. Nezumi knew he could have been leading him to a volcano, and Shion would have probably happily followed, though he would have been asking infuriating questions the entire way.

"We're going to see a few old acquaintances of mine." Provided they were now set up where he thought they were. He was pretty sure they were. The only thing that might have changed was that they might have taken over the old building now that the disaster had struck and it had been abandoned. More room would be a good thing for them.

"And you think they can get us into Fennec Corp?"

"They definitely can." The proper question was would they allow them to do so? It was a gamble, but a gamble was better than looking for something that wasn't going to show up. A gamble would lead them to an end more assuredly than anything else. Day seven was tomorrow. Something needed to happen.

The closer they got to the large building who's lights still shined brightly, the more nervousness he could sense from the boy behind him. More than once, Nezumi paused to ask if Shion wanted to head back, but every time Shion only steeled his face and told him no. If nothing else, Nezumi had to admit the boy was stubborn. He'd need that stubbornness, no matter where they went from here.

They were only a block away from the tower when Nezumi finally turned down an alleyway, and then down a flight of concrete stairs to a steel door. He tested the handle, only to find that it was locked, as he'd suspected. "What are we going to do now?"

Nezumi snorted. So little faith. "We are not going to do anything. You are going to wait while I pick the lock."

"What?"

Nezumi raised an eyebrow as he pulled a couple of the long tools required for such a job from his pocket. It'd been a while since he'd done this, but it was a pretty simple lock. He didn't think it would take him long. "You got a problem with that?"

"No..." The way he said it gave away that yes, he did in fact have a problem with that, but Shion wasn't physically stopping him, and Nezumi was hardly going to allow a tone stop him either.

He played with the lock for several minutes, waiting, turning and twisting until he found the right mechanism and at last there was a soft click. "There." The tools were put away, and Nezumi stepped back and opened the door, gesturing for Shion to enter ahead of him. "After you, your highness."

To his credit, Shion mocked him right back by making off with a little bow and an exaggerated thank you before he went in the door. The little shit really was learning too well.

Inside was predictably dark, and once the door swung shut behind them, the only light was the scant bits that filtered through the block windows on the walls above their heads. Moving was slow, Nezumi could feel his way around in the dark fairly well, and they did have the two little nezumi to help guide them, but Shion was practically blind. It was only when the boy's hand found the cool stone wall that they began to move forward with any real certainty, but even that didn't last long before something went wrong. "Nezumi?"

"What?" He hissed the word out, knowing it was a bad idea to do much talking until they were at least out of the basement.

"I just touched something."

Nezumi rolled his eyes. How specific. "What do you think it was?"

Shion took in a sharp breath. "A nezumi. Not Tsukiyo or Cravat, and not a normal nezumi. It didn't run away when I touched it."

That, and a squeak from the black one were all the notice he got before something hard collided with the side of his head. Nezumi knew nothing for a second but then regained himself before he managed to meet the cold floor below. He reached for his senses, so far weakened now that they barely told him where the threat was coming from. He braced himself for another attack, but it didn't immediately come. "That's certainly a rude welcome." He lifted his hand to his head where the object, whatever it had been, had struck, but it was fine, just tender to the touch. Humans were so delicate.

"You were told not to come back." Ah. So it was Sasori. That made a lot of sense, almost too much sense.

"Since when do I do as I'm told?"

"I won't allow you to get to the others. I'll kill you both here."

A blossom of panic rose in his heart. Shion. "Get down!" He yelled at the other boy, just as his senses screamed at him that Sasori was on the move again. Even for him, it was hard to fight in the dark, and he was barely able to make out enough to block the next blow that came, deflecting it to his side. There was a problem with this fight, Sasori was coming at him with the intent to kill, but Nezumi wasn't. He couldn't kill Sasori, tempting as it might actually be. They needed the help of the other people in the building, if he killed Sasori, they would never get it.

"Go on ahead!" The man's next attack nicked his cheek, and he instantly felt a flow of blood, but it was superficial. If Shion could get up the stairs and to the people, then they would listen to him. That was simply how it was, and if Sasori killed him before they came back...well, it wasn't as though he had any particular attachment to this life, his goal was almost carried out at this point. It was Shion who still had a lot of work.

Sasori's attacks were becoming more direct, more brutal, and despite the fact that his eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could see more clearly, the man had him on his back sooner rather Nezumi would ever care to admit, hands pressed to throat, knees practically crushing his rib cage. His body began to gasp for the air it could not get, and soon little tiny lights were starting to spark before his eyes. The need for oxygen overwhelmed his thoughts, and he was sure he'd pass out soon before...it was gone. Suddenly. Sasori was simply no longer there.

Nezumi sat straight upright, gasping. His heart pounded against his chest, and blood rushed in his ears. He could breathe. He wasn't dying, but what had caused Sasori to stop?! Even now, seeing wasn't precisely easy, and it took a moment for the sight to truly register. It was Shion. Little Shion who could barely destroy demons with his phone had found a wire somewhere along the ground and had taken Sasori from behind, and the role was now reversed. If Shion didn't stop, Sasori would die, and Shion would become a murderer.

No.

"Stop it!" He didn't want this. Shion had barely come back from the sight of a living man being devoured, he could never come back from killing. Nezumi knew that deep in his bones. It would fundamentally change something within the other boy. He couldn't allow it. Before he was even really aware of it, he found by Shion's side, tugging harshly at his sleeve. "Let him go. Just. Release the wire, Shion."

"Hm?" It was as though Shion hadn't even been inside his body until that moment, he looked over at Nezumi, and his grip relaxed just a little. It was enough.

"There you go." Shion stepped back, the wire slipping from Sasori's neck. Nezumi felt relief flood his system. That had been very close, a few more moments and it would have been too late, Shion would have been lost.

On the ground, Sasori was gagging and gasping as he tried to regain himself. "Where did he...even come from? I couldn't sense him at all." Yes, Nezumi thought to himself, that had at times been a problem for him as well, frightening as it was. Sometimes it was like the boy he'd chosen disappeared on him, replaced with a hollowness nothing could fill. At those times he couldn't so much as sense his position, even though he ought to have been able to sense him constantly now that they remained so close together. Right now, that didn't matter. Sasori was alive, and thanks to Shion, they had the upper hand.

"We want to see Elder," he said coldly, hoping his tone masked his shaken emotions.

"And he wants to see you." The voice came from behind, and Nezumi turned to see a child younger even than Inukashi, holding a kerosene lamp. He didn't not recognize her. She must have come after.

From his spot on the ground, Sasori made a noise of disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me."

"No," the child said blandly, one eyebrow raised in a perfectly practiced arch. "He's curious as to why they're here."

"Fools."

She shrugged at him, watching him as he finally got up to his feet. "Doesn't matter. This way." The lamp flame flickered as she swung herself around and began to walk. Sasori scoffed, but followed, his head turning back around every few seconds to make sure they weren't wandering off. After the first couple times, Nezumi gave him a rather vulgar gesture that actually caused him to startle with surprise. He didn't know him very well, now did he? Nezumi allowed himself a grin at pleasure at Sasori's expression, but then turned back to Shion, something else on his mind completely.

"You don't have to do that."

"Do what?"

"Kill. It's just not in your blood, Shion." He couldn't believe he was saying that. It went against everything he stood for, everything he believed about humanity, but that really was Shion. Killing wasn't him, and no matter what it meant in the end, he didn't want to change like that. "I know you were protecting me, but-"

"It wasn't just that."

"Huh?" Nezumi looked into those dark eyes, made even darker by the shadows that danced in the flickering lamplight. Those eyes were steel and cold. They were not the eyes of the Shion he knew. "Then what?"

"I was punishing him."

Nezumi felt his eyes grow wide. He probably looked like an idiot. "What?"

"He was hurting you, and so he had to be punished. If he did it again, I'd do it again, every time."

Nezumi's steps faltered, but Shion kept walking ahead of him, step by step, his back straight and determined. "Fight it," he murmured when Shion was already too far away to hear. He had to fight against that feeling, that thing that rose up inside of him. He wondered if Shion could.

Sasori's nezumi were playful, or at least he assumed they were Sasori's nezumi. They were smaller and more numerous than Nezumi's own little friends, but they were definitely smart, maybe just as smart as Hamlet, Cravat, and Tsukiyo. Maybe they came from the same place, or were even family, but whatever the case was, the new nezumi hung off of him and climbed all over him, their little whiskers tickling his ears, neck, and hands as Shion tried to keep up with them. "Hey! Stop that!" he could not stop himself from laughing as one of them stuck its little nose too far into his ear. "Cut it out!" He knew they were smart, but they certainly were not as well trained as Nezumi's. They simply wouldn't listen to him at all.

Sasori was of no help at all. In fact, the man seemed to have resolved not to speak as they made their way to see the person that Nezumi had called Elder. Nezumi too seemed to hold no sway over these members of his namesake, for when he asked for help, the other boy only informed him that they would do as the pleased. Shion was stuck with playful nezumi all the way up two flights of stairs, until they came onto a floor that looked like it had been an office before the earthquake. Then the little rodents seemed to abandon ship and skittered off into shadows. "How odd, the nezumi seem neither hostile or wary around him."

Shion studied the space, trying to ascertain where the voice had come from, the carpeting had lines where cubicles had once stood, the doors to the separate offices stood open and the blinds and curtains were held apart at the barest of cracks to show people, a countless amount of people watching them. "There's so many."

"Yeah, looks like they've all come to see us. That's a bit of an honor."

"Nezumi, why have you returned? You very well know that you might have led them right to us. We could kill you for that." Again, Shion tried to find the source of the voice, which room it had come from, but he could not figure it out. It could have come from anywhere.

"And you would be perfectly within your rights to do that, Elder, but please hear us out first."

There was a pause, "I suppose that's fair." From the room farthest away from them, a elderly seeming man in a wheelchair emerged, rolling himself toward them. Though it appeared as though he could not walk there was no hint of weakness in his eyes, no sense of self pity, only strength.

The man stopped when he was about ten feet away from them, and then he turned those eyes on Shion. "May I know your name, odd child?"

Shion blinked in surprise. "Oh, of course. I'm Shion."

"What a beautiful, if old fashioned, name."

He bowed his head at the man. "Thank you. Am I correct in assuming that you are Elder?" It sounded like more of a title than a name, but then Nezumi was a word, not a name, and the same could be said of Inukashi. Shion was getting rather used to names that were not names.

"That is correct. I am Elder. Why have you and Nezumi come here?"

"We need to figure out how to get into Fennec Corp."

Murmurs and soft gasps emanated from the rooms around them. Elder silenced them all by just raising one hand. "Shion. Do you know what we are? The people in this room?" Shion shook his head, and Elder looked toward Nezumi. "Why don't you tell him, Nezumi?"

Beside him, Nezumi took in a breath and then said, "These are the people taken by Fennec Corp between the years of 2006 and 2013. All that remains of them anyway."

What? "Inukashi said you were the only one that ever came back!"

"Did he say that?" Nezumi chuckled. "Technically, that's true. I'm the only one that ever came back to the surface, but as you can see, many others escaped, and they stayed hidden in the tunnels beneath the buildings, expanding them, eking out a living. They only moved up to the upper floors of this building after the earthquake came and drove everyone else away."

"Why? Why would you stay hidden like that? Why wouldn't you let people know what happened to you?"

Next to him, Nezumi mumbled, "So naive."

"You've lived fully in the light all your life, haven't you, Shion?" Elder nodded in a way that told Shion that he didn't need an answer. "Yes, you've lived in a world of plenty, a world where fairness exists, and justice is given to criminals, but that's not how the world has ever worked for people like us. If we came out, we would only be captured again, tortured again, and no one would believe our cries. A week ago, what would you have believed? That the largest corporation in the world has been capturing, torturing, and experimenting on the dregs of society? Or that a few people are looking to get some money and thought this would be an easy way to do it?"

Shion had no answer to that. Of course now his heart said that it would be on the side of the victims, but even if that had been true before, he knew that the answer for most people would be to side with Fennec Corp. It would seem only natural. "Is there a reason?" He bit his lip. Nezumi said that Fennec Corp had a plan, but what was it?

"Men have long been obsessed with the idea of immortality, with the idea of becoming gods. The reason is as simple as that."

Immortality...a week ago Shion would have laughed at the idea, but now, it wasn't so farfetched. After all, demons existed. "But why you? Why Nezumi? Why anyone here?"

One word left Elder's mouth. "Power."

"What-What does that mean?"

It was Nezumi that answered. "Not all people are equal. Humans are all worthless, but there are some that are less worthless than others. The gifted, the talented, the trained, and charismatic. These things are shining lights in the souls of humanity. Power. There are those that lead and those that follow. Sometimes, if it's pushed hard enough, these things can become...more."

"More what?"

"Tangible, unnatural. Things like...summoning demons from another realm, like Inukashi being able to talk to animals. Fennec Corp collected those people to get their lights, they're worth."

"They collected you too." For his singing, Inukashi had said. Shion had still never heard Nezumi sing.

"Nezumi is a little different than the rest of us, but you and I, Shion, we're the same."

"Oh?"

"Come closer." Elder beckoned Shion to come closer, but before he could even think about taking a step, Sasori grabbed him from behind.

"Don't let him! He's evil, that's all that's in his soul! He comes here feigning confusion and ignorance, but he will kill us all the moment our back are turned."

"Let him go, Sasori. It will be all right." Sasori hesitated, and Nezumi elbowed him.

"You heard your leader. Let him go. Or are you really that much of a coward?"

At last, he was reluctantly released, and Shion stepped closer to Elder. "How are we the same?"

Elder smiled at him, it was weak, but warm, and Shion smiled back. "When I was younger, I worked for Fennec Corp, as a researcher. I really had no idea what I was doing, but I learned a lot. One day, they brought a girl in. She was barely older than you are now, but there was something different about her. She went in one room, and though I waited for her to come out, she never did. I'd never noticed that before, and so I looked into it.

"Eventually my curiosity brought me down into a basement full of cages that held people. Every single one of those faces I'd seen before, but I single mindedly looked for that girl until, finally, I found her." He sighed. "She was ecstatic to see me, so much so that she ran forward, grabbed me through the bars and kissed me." That did seem rather odd, until, "After that, I changed, she whispered words of meaning into my ear and I changed. Just like you." The man pulled up one sleeve and Shion was astounded to find that beneath the cloth was a red scar that matched his own.

"That girl was an angel, a very early attempt at summoning, perhaps the first successful one. She wanted me to free her, and I tried, I used the power she'd given me to talk my way into the center of the department, I got so close that if they hadn't caught me, I would have scrambled the systems. But I was caught, and my efforts were for naught...until Nezumi came along and freed us all."

"I didn't free you," Nezumi snarked at him. "I just left the gates open."

Elder smiled again, and Shion realized that though he had said he might have to kill him, this man truly cared about Nezumi. He had that kind of heart. That was wonderful, but there was something more confusing, more pressing, on his mind. "So you're saying I've been...chosen by an angel?"

"Yes, touched. An angel wants something of you. Do you know what it is?"

Shion shook his head. Elder had said that he'd been kissed before he changed, and that rang true of him too. He'd grown feverish and changed the night he'd first met Nezumi, but Nezumi had also assured him that his body was human, since he had a heart, and the 'demons' summoned from phones did not. But what or who else could it have been? He'd always wondered, and what if this was the answer? An angel had kissed him, chosen him. Who else could it have been other than Nezumi? "I don't know."

Elder nodded solemnly. "Then tell me what you do know."

Shion took in a deep breath, gathering it all together. "I know the situation in Tokyo is steadily getting worse. I know we can't live like this forever, and I know the government isn't coming to help, in fact, they're keeping us here. I know Fennec Corp is practically untouched, I know they also designed the demon summoning app that is both the source of the problem and our only defense against it. I know that if we can get inside and destroy the servers, the demons will have nothing to anchor themselves here, and hopefully, with them gone, the quarantine will end."

Elder nodded, apparently satisfied with what he was hearing. "And what do you need from us?"

"Just the tunnels," Nezumi said with a shrug. "We can hardly get to the servers by walking through the front doors. You're still here after these last couple of years, so it's pretty safe to assume that they haven't found the tunnels yet. You let us go through the tunnels tomorrow morning, you never have to hear from our sorry asses again."

"You know it's suicide either way, don't you?"

"Probably, but it's better than doing nothing. It's also better than starving to death or getting eaten by demons."

Elder took his time before speaking again, he looked them both directly in the eyes, as though he were weighing their souls. Finally, he closed his eyes and nodded. "All right. We'll let you go through the tunnels tomorrow morning." Relief flooded Shion's system at the words. That was one step achieved. He felt drained...and this was the easy part.

"Elder, you can't let them do this! It's crazy! "

Elder only shook his head at Sasori's words. "The world is crazy. Besides, they're right; it's only getting worse, soon we won't be able to support ourselves. If they think they can get the quarantine lifted, then that is for the best, and we won't impede them. Shion," the older man held out a small device to him, and without thinking, Shion accepted it. "Should you manage to get to the severs, plug this into them. It's a virus, I developed it years ago when I was trying to free the prisoners, but I never got to use it. May it help you."

Shion nodded, slipping the small device into his front pocket. He would remember. "Thank you."

After the negotiations with Elder had finished Shion and Nezumi had been taken up one floor to a group of apartments, shoved into the room, and the door had been locked. Shion wasn't very worried about it, they'd brought a modicum of food with them, and if they needed to escape, he'd watched Nezumi pick the lock to get into the building, which Shion was sure was a much more complicated lock than the one to their apartment.

The apartment was easily the nicest place they'd stayed in yet, consisting of four rooms, including the kitchen and bathroom. It had clearly been occupied before the disaster, for it was full of furniture, toppled over though it might be. The lights obviously didn't work, but when Shion turned the handle on the faucet, water spritzed out in spurts at first before becoming a steady and clear stream. Shion gasped softly. Water. "Nezumi! They have water!"

"Amazing," Nezumi's voice drawled from the other room, not sounding amazed at all. Shion grinned, knowing that Nezumi was probably more pleased with that than he led on, water was one of those things that were needed for life, they'd been subsisting on pop and the occasional juice for a few days, taking gulps of water only when the others were not satisfying. Nezumi probably considered clean water more precious than food.

He turned the water off and returned to the living room, where Nezumi had pushed most of the furniture back into an upright position. "And hey, we can read uninterrupted tonight." Truth be told, it would mostly be Nezumi reading with Shion listening as intently as Cravat and Tsukiyo, but that was okay. Nezumi's voice was beautiful, and flowed like water over words, he could be a man, a woman, a child, a witch, a god, and so much more. There was no shame in wanting to hear more of it.

"Provided we have a source of light, that shouldn't be a problem." As though on cue, the light filtering in through the window faded and it became harder to see clearly.

Shion frowned. "What time is it?" Surely it couldn't be late enough for the sun to start setting yet.

Nezumi shrugged. "Two, maybe three o'clock."

His frown deepened, "Then why...?" He let his voice trail off a bit as he strode over to the window, pulling back the drapes, only to find that beyond the drapes was a small balcony, just big enough to put a couple chairs. This was even more perfect. The window, really a door, slid open, and Shion stepped outside. From there, he could see over the nearby buildings to Fennec Tower, rising high above them, but more importantly, the sky above them was practically black, and even as Shion stared, a great boom sounded above them, and rain began to pour.

"Oh look, rain." Nezumi's voice from behind him sounded about as unimpressed with it as he did about just about everything, but Shion was a totally different story. A grin broke out over his face, and when a flash of lightning lit up the sky, he leaned out over the railing an screamed in time with the thunder. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

A laugh bubbled up in his throat as Shion pulled back, his head already almost completely soaked from barrage of rain from above. He looked back behind him to find that Nezumi's face was somewhat surprised, his eyes wide, both eyebrows raised. It was not an expression he wore often, and Shion found that it somehow did not suit his beautiful face. "I used to do this all the time when I was younger."

"You say that like you're an old man."

Shion shrugged. Every day he was a little older than he'd been the day before. That was simply a fact. "Anyway, you cry out all your frustrations into the storm. No one can hear you, and it relieves stress." Shion felt his grin mellow into something a little more wicked as he continued, "You're always stressed, Nezumi. You should try it."

The surprise on Nezumi's face melted back into his normal steel, and those thin lips formed the words, "Absolutely not."

The wicked feeling settled more firmly in his stomach, and Shion went onto pester Nezumi about it, quickly, of course, for he didn't know how long the storm was going to last. His mission took the length of three more claps of thunder, until, finally, "If I do it, will you shut up?!"

Shion grinned. "Absolutely."

The taller boy stared down at him for exactly three seconds, (Shion found himself counting) and when those seconds were done, Nezumi sighed in his overly exaggerated way, and walked over to the railing, leaning out far enough that the rain fell onto his head. Shion followed him. The rain against his head and shoulders was wet and cold, but he didn't care about that. He wanted to burn this moment into his memory, so that he would never forget it. The way Nezumi's shoulders hunched up and he pushed himself as far over the railing as possible, the way his eyes, in their breathtaking gray that almost matched the sky above them, practically shined as he concentrated on timing, and the way his dark hair framed his beautiful, statuesque face, even as the rain dampened it, causing it to stick to his cheeks. Shion wanted to remember.

In his peripheral vision, he saw the lightning flash, and Nezumi tightened up, now dedicated to the action, and then the thunder came. Nezumi jammed his eyes shut and screamed. Unlike his own scream, Nezumi's was not lost within the clap of thunder. It carried, a sound so sharp that it felt like it shattered Shion's soul. Pain, fear, hope, joy, determination, loss...all these emotions and more flickered through his heart at the sound. For how much Nezumi hated humanity, his scream was filled with entirely human emotions.

The thunder ended, and so did Nezumi's cry. His eyes opened, and he leaned back, water now dripping down his face. "Are you happy now?" The boy began to mumble something about soaking, and, without waiting for an answer moved to go back inside the apartment, beginning to pull one of his leather gloves from his hand. As always, the movements were elegant and deft, one finger being pried off at a time, but Shion wasn't thinking about that.

"Nezumi."

"What now?" Nezumi turned back toward him, the bite in his voice not showing on his face, and Shion knew he had to do it now, or he'd never do it. There'd never even be another chance.

He moved, hands reaching out to the other's face, pulling it closer to his, to close that distance. To his surprise, Nezumi didn't resist him, and what he wanted happened with ease. Their lips touched, and it felt like electricity flooded his system, tingling from the tips of his toes to even the tips of his hair. The feeling intensified when Nezumi kissed him back, and Shion gasped at the feeling that wasn't pain, wasn't fear, or happiness, but...pleasure.

Shion could feel Nezumi smirk against his lips, and the young man's hands came up and caressed his face, one of them covered in wet leather, the other bare, short nails dragging lightly against his skin. Something warm lightly touched his lips, asking, and a second later, Shion realized it was Nezumi's tongue. A feeling of embarrassment rose in his chest, but also a feeling of...want. Nezumi wasn't doing anything to him that he didn't want, and so, hesitantly, he opened his mouth.

After that, all Shion felt was a mixture of things that tangled up into ball of sensations he could not properly separate. Hands in his hair, the railing of the balcony behind him, rain against his neck, and...Nezumi. Nezumi's essence overwhelmed him, bringing him higher and higher until...he was released. Shion bit back a sound of displeasure at the loss, and then felt his face heat up when he heard Nezumi's chuckle. "Was it that bad?" He hoped not, because it definitely had not been bad to him.

Another chuckle, and he felt a thumb against his lower lip, and opened his eyes. Nezumi was still close, close enough that if he wanted to, he could close the distance again. "You could use a little practice, but that's not why I laugh."

"Then why?"

"You kept your promise." The words were whispered so softly that Shion almost didn't hear them. His promise? What promise? Nezumi seemed to notice the confusion on his face, for he continued, "The promise that next time, you'd kiss me first."

Yes. He had said that. He remembered now. "I guess I did."

Nezumi gave another ha of musical laughter and then drew away from him completely. Without him there, Shion felt cold, and the rain falling against his back became more prominent, but he still felt...light, and his lips still tingled from the contact. His body wanted more, even as he watched the other boy pick up his dropped glove and start to elegantly pry off the other one as he walked back inside, but his mind was starting to work again, questions were starting to form.

He moved away from the balcony, trying to sort out both thoughts and emotions in his head. Elder had said that before his own change, he'd been kissed by an angel, and that the same must have happened to Shion. Right before his own change in hair and his scar had begun, Nezumi had kissed him. The same day that he'd made his forgotten promise, Nezumi had told him his body was human. He had a heart in his chest, and those that came from the phone had no souls, they were fabrications. He didn't think Nezumi had lied to him, but...what if he'd left something out? "Nezumi?"

"Hm?" He was taking off his jacket now, it was leather, just like his gloves, but the rain had slid off it more easily, and Shion was momentarily distracted by the thought that perhaps it had been waterproofed at one point. "What is it?"

Oh. Right. "You told me that your body was human, that day...before I made that promise to you."

"What of it?" Nezumi's tone was expectant, as though he knew what was going to come next, even as he whipped his scarf and whipped the water right out of it. His graceful movements, not for the first time, reminded Shion of a matador.

"I think you worded that very carefully."

"And?"

"Since we talked to Elder...I've been thinking, is what's inside of you also human?"

Nezumi laughed a bit, smirking, and Shion felt his face heat up before he even spoke, "I assure you, my blood and organs are also human." Yeah, there it was, Nezumi's sharp and sarcastic tongue. It made his face heat up even more to remember that not five minutes ago he'd had that tongue in his mouth.

"T-that's not what I meant! I mean..." he bit his lip trying to gather himself. He had to stand up to Nezumi, if he kept stuttering, he wouldn't be taken seriously. "Your...soul...your essence. Whatever it is that makes you Nezumi. Is that part of you an angel?"

This time, Nezumi didn't laugh at him, smirk, or even mock him. Instead those piercing gray eyes looked straight into his own, and this time his lips formed a single word, "Yes."